Course de Cote d'Etretat-Bénouville 2015

Andrew Morland in his 1955 Lotus 6

The Course de Cote d'Etretat-Bénouville is rather unique because of the number of British VSCC cars and competitors that participate.  Its closeness to the Portsmouth-Le Havre ferry and the attraction of the famous Normandy seaside town of Etretat obviously contribute to this.  For the Brits there is the rare chance to do a hillclimb on public roads and a hill of 1.6km which is longer than those in the UK.  The late August date marks an end to the summer holidays with a last chance to breath in the pleasant Normandy air before “La Rentrée” (return to school and work after the vacations).  As well as the competitors a number of Brits make their way to spectate in their classic and historic vehicles which adds to the atmosphere around the town and the climb. Well worth a visit.

Historic cars in the Hotel Ambassador car park in Etretat

The course itself rises out of Etretat along the D11 public road to the pleasant cliff top country village of Bénouville where the finish and paddock are.  For the spectators there is just one place where you are allowed to watch the climbs but it provides a very good view of two of the corners. However, you don’t get as close to the cars as on other courses and thus need a long lens to take good photos. But at least French hillclimbs are not blighted by high fences. 

What you see as a spectator at the Course de Cote de Etretat-Bénouville.  Here the VHC cars go back down the hill to the start.

Etretat makes a nice back drop in the distance as Peter Livesy in his 1938 Frazer Nash TT Replica makes the climb.  This photo was on the Saturday during the practice runs.  It was not as sunny on Sunday.

If you stand in the right place and use a very long lens you can just capture pictures of a third corner.  Here Lyn Padfield's 1955 Lotus 6 has come to a stop.

You access the spectator areas via Bénouville and drive through the paddock that is enhanced by some pleasant Normandy farm buildings.  Most French hillclimbs are quite difficult to find but I was pleasantly surprised by the number of signs to help you find the way to this Course de Cote.  The paddock provides another chance for photos and is great throw-back to the paddocks of the fifties and sixties.   The entry fee for spectators was very low cost at just five euros for the Sunday or seven euros for both days.  We stayed with friends in Le Havre but there are plenty of hotels and campsites in the area.

Impeccable classic Triumph sports car in the paddock at Bénouville.

Lotus in the paddock at Bénouville

Detail on the Gemini including the 4 litre V8 and my shadow!

Saturday afternoon sees just the fifty or so historic vehicles take to the hill and they also return on Sunday when the seventy plus regional French hillclimb cars join them.  It should be mentioned that there is a Brit competing in many of the Normandy regional hillclimbs.  He is John Page, a very nice guy that we met earlier in the year at St Pierre de Varengville.  I was very pleased to see him again at Etretat.  He competes in an ex-Gary Brabham 1988 Formula Three Ralt.  Thus although he competes against the more modern cars, his is a car worthy of competing in historic races itself!  John, who has a French competition license, was competing in his sixth French hillclimb of the year.  Next month at the beginning of October you can see John competing at Pourville near Dieppe which John rates as his favourite local hillclimb.

With John Page in the paddock at Bénouville in front of his F3 Ralt RT32

John had a good first run but had trouble with the gear changes on his second run and ran wide.

Saturday had the better weather of the two days but it was already beginning to cloud over when the first runs started at 3pm.  Then there were a number of long delays but you learn to expect these when you attend French hillclimbs. It allowed me some time to go back to the paddock and take some photos.   Sunday was a little misty but still very pleasant.   The expected rain and storms stayed away.

The VHC (Vehicules Historique Competion) cars were split into a number of classes.  Brits made up most of the entries in almost all of the classes.

I think this fast 1929 Morgan Super Aero driven by Sue Darbyshire has a 1.3 litre Harley-Davidson engine.

The pre 1947 VSCC class had a good variety of vehicles including many Frazer Nashes.

Annabel Jones in a 1926/29 Frazer Nash Boulogne Vitesse 1.5 lire.

John Earle Marsh in a 1935 3.5 litre Alvis Silver Eagle

Julian Grimwade in the 1934 3.5 litre Frazer Nash Norris Special

There was also a class for cars from 1947 to 1961 including Cooper-Bristol's and Lotus 6s.

The 1956  one litre DKW Monza of Alain Mairie

The class of cars from 1962 to 1976 was perhaps my favourite.

The 1973 Alpine Renault A110 of Bob Gibson

Drivers chatting about their Alpine Renaults.  This is the 1974 A110 of Johnny Hulme.

This much modified 1955/74 Renault 4CV was running in the prototype class

It was good to see some younger drivers.  This is Christopher Williams in the Renault 4CV Ptoto concentrating before the restart

Tony Gomiz in the 1976 Marcadier "CanAm".  Don't worry the driver was wearing proper overalls during his climbs but this is the car coming back slowly up the run during one of the delays.

Andy Owler in the 1971 Dinalpin A110 which is a Mexican built version of the French sports car.  It looks rather resplendent in the Yellow Renault colours

Finally there were the post historique cars.

The 1996 Ginetta G27R of Anthony Williams

This 1984 Renault R5 Turbo of Sheridan Bell caught my eye.

Rob Hume in the 1989 Van Diemen RF89 Multi one litre sports car.

The 1979 1.5 litre Fenouil JF79 of Francois Prieur

The fastest of the VHCs was a much more recent single seater.

James Wilkinson took FTD in the VHCs in this 1993 Formula Vauxhall Reynard.

The classes in French regional hillclimbs take a bit of understanding with them having categories, classes and divisions!   I won’t attempt to explain them here except that cars compete against similar types of car in terms of type, cubic capacity and to a certain extent age.  The very fastest cars that compete to be the overall winner are quite impressive in terms of speed.

The Production touring cars.

Laurent Devienne's F2000 Renault Super 5 Max

The modified touring cars cars.

An équipe of Simca Rallye 2

GT / GTTS The GT cars.

This Porsche is a regular in the Normandy hillclimbs

CM – Production based Sports cars

Patrick Noe's BRC CM-02

CN -Sports Racing cars.  Only cars of 2 litres or under are allowed.   Some of the fastest French hillclimb cars are the specialist Norma sports cars.

Norma M20

The single seaters.   Formula Three, Formula Renault and Formula Ford cars are allowed and compete in different classes.  The pre-2009 F3 cars compete with the FF cars.  The F3000 cars that you sometimes see at the bigger events are not allowed at the Regional events.  The modern F3 cars tend to compete with the Norma sports cars for the outright win on many climbs.

One of the very fastest cars was Bertrand Lassalle's Dallara F300

Alain Facon's F3 Dallara F302-04

Thomas Beaufils in the much older  Lola T620

The fact that there was just one place to spectate gave me a particular challenge as a photographer and blogger in that I needed to make more of an effort to get variety into the shots.  Hopefully I succeeded.  

Roger Buxton's 1930 Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 supercharged Gran Sport.

As usual I was using the excellent Panasonic Lumix DMC TZ70 Compact camera with its very good Leica lens and 30 times zoom.  For motor sport it is good as it is very easy to control the shutter speed.

The Jema of Anthony Mancel

I have managed to attend at least one French motoring event a month so far this year.  Not yet sure where I’ll go in September and October, and certainly November and December will be a challenge!  However, you can be sure that my reports and photos will appear on this blog, so come back soon.

In the meantime follow the links below to see my earlier reports:

All the cars from the 2015 Le Mans 24 hours

The St Pierre de Varengville Hillclimb

The Montée Historique de Guichet

Cars seen in the spectator car park:

Ford Escort Mexico

Vintage Bentley

Lotus 6

End piece:

Changing the gear ratios on the Lola T620 of Thomas Beaufils

John Etherton asserts his copyright to all of the photos on this blogpost.  However, you may post the photos elsewhere on the web as long as you credit the photographer, John Etherton, and this blog post, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com and provide a link to this page.

John Etherton affirme son droit d'auteur à l'ensemble des photos sur ce billet de blog. Cependant, vous pouvez poster des photos ailleurs sur le web aussi longtemps que vous créditez le photographe, John Etherton, et ce blog, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com et fournissez un lien vers cette page.